I checked my email, then Ajeesh took me in his car several miles along rutted tracks to the top of a ridge called Calvary Mount. We then walked down a narrow, precipitous to a tribal village. Ajeesh and his World Cultural Tourism Club want to set up an eco-development committee in this village. It was a valuable lesson to me - children in tribal village are unclothed because their parents can't afford clothes, not to avoid cleaning soiled pre-nappytraining clothing. Bugger this world!
Part of the problem is that this village is cut off on one side by being 1 hour's trudge down a precipitous path and on the other side by Periyar lake. So they can't easily sell their crops into the modern world and the modern world can't reach them. It seems that this has fringe benefits - the police turn a blind eye to them growing some cannabis for medicinal purposes.
I recall a chat with the owner of a factory at the top of Calvary Mount. He asked me what I thought of the crosses all along the edge of Calvary Mount. I repled 'Not much', partly because I thought the made-made symbols detracted from the place's natural beauty, partly because I don't think much of any religious symbols. I recall that an interesting conversation ensued...
Back in Nikunjam, it appears we drank whiskey Ajeesh's doctor friend. It seems that whiskey didn't mix with appam* and rotating universe syndrome ensued.
*similar to dosa but thicker and stodgier
© (except the blatantly ripped-off bits) Random Bozo 2006